Regulation without the State: The Debate Continues

This book continues the great tradition of writing from the Institute of Economic Affairs which shows that government is a Johnny come lately to regulation as it was to education and the welfare state.Regulation is a rapidly growing area of government activity since the fiscal crises of the 1970s forced governments throughout the world to divest themselves of whole companies and sectors, transferring them to the private sector as globalisation moved on.In this timely book, John Blundell and Colin Robinson, General Director and Editorial Director respectively of the Institute of Economic Affairs, reprint their original 1999 Occasional Paper and open the floor up to commentaries from a distinguished panel of experts.Led by a masterly paper by Professor Norman Barry, these commentaries explore the scope and limits of private and public regulation. They are in general agreement that the scope for public regulation is limited and that private regulation is a more cost-effective and efficient alternative. Also what emerges from the papers is a sense of Hayekian spontaneous order when several of the authors outline the emergence of private regulation as the market needed it without any prompting from government.This fascinating little book is required reading for the layman, student and policymaker alike. It is of fundamental importance in examining the role of regulation in modern life and provides a timely warning of the dangers of government in over extending it's regulatory capabilities.